


first words

by nanasuoka (DJBunn3)



Category: Free!
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, SouHaru, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, i literally have no idea what to tag this sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 18:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19182958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJBunn3/pseuds/nanasuoka
Summary: “Out of my way, Nanase,” Yamazaki growls, and Haru’s blood runs cold in a split second at those five familiar words.He feels his heart drop to his stomach and his hands ball into nervous, shaky fists at his sides as the rest of the world seems to disappear, person by person, until they’re the only two left.Out of my way, Nanase. The same words that have been stuck on his skin for nineteen years, the ones his friends have marveled over, the ones he never bothered to care about until now. There’s no way that- he can’t be…Yamazaki arches an eyebrow at him impatiently, waiting for Haru to get out of his way, but he can’t. Not now.“It’s you,” he says, shocked. Because he’s still in denial that it’s- it can’t be true, it just isn’t possible that out of everyone in the world, his soulmate is- is his toprival.





	first words

Yamazaki is one of Haru’s top rivals. The records Haru sets in town races and relays, he ties almost perfectly. When one of them stumbles, the other uses the chance to take the lead, and vice versa. He even made the switch from butterfly to freestyle a few years ago, after recovering from a severe shoulder injury. But despite their similarities, their neck-and-neck scores, and the fact that they’re both from the same area, they’ve never spoken a word to each other.

It’s not like they  _ need _ to, Haru thinks, sinking down further into the bathtub. Talking isn’t a necessary part of competing, and competing is the thing they’re expected to do. It would be much too troublesome to go out of his way to talk to his rivals, since it’s not strictly necessary. In fact, he doesn’t go out of his way to talk to  _ anyone _ , which always leads Nagisa to teasing him about never finding his soulmate.

_ So what, _ he thinks, looking down at the words tattooed carefully on his wrist.  _ Out of my way, Nanase _ is written in dark pigment, the letters etched in plain and simple writing. It’s kind of a rude statement, especially for a first interaction, and from someone he’s supposed to spend the rest of his life with, at that. Whoever his soulmate is, they don’t exactly sound like someone worth searching for.

The doorbell rings downstairs, signaling Makoto’s arrival. The two of them are supposed to go to a question and answer session at a local high school along with several other college-age swimmers, but honestly, he’d rather do anything other than that. It’s not even  _ his _ high school that they’re going to, so why should he care?

“Haru,” Makoto’s voice calls, accompanied by the sound of the door sliding open. “Come on, we’re going to be late!”

Haru sighs, giving his wrist a final glance before letting it submerge under the water with the rest of his body. He opens his eyes and looks through the bathwater up at the ceiling, then at the distorted image of his friend hovering above him, hand extended.

“The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back,” Makoto reminds him once he resurfaces. “They’re not going to start without us, you know.”

“I know,” Haru says, shaking water from his hair and accepting the hand his friend offers him. He pulls himself out of the water and steps out onto the bathmat, letting excess water drip off of him and onto the ground.

“I’ll wait downstairs,” Makoto tells him as he reaches over to grab a towel. “Don’t be too long, okay?”

Haru sighs, rubbing the towel over his hair a few times and sidestepping past Makoto. “I’ll be down,” he promises on his way out the door, moving the towel to dry his arms.

He catches another glimpse of his soulmate’s first words on his wrist, averting his eyes quickly before he can linger on it. He’s got more important things to worry about, like which swimsuit to wear under his clothes and whether or not Yamazaki will be at the high school.

* * *

 

The event turns out to be a little bigger than Haru had been expecting. Makoto had told him that they’d be speaking to some students in the auditorium, but he hadn’t mentioned that multiple schools would be coming. Row upon row of chairs line the whole auditorium that is filled with chattering high schoolers and faculty staff members.

Despite the big turnout, the question and answer session goes smoothly. Haru barely has to speak, aside from giving a general overview of his swimming career after high school. He zones out after that, only snapping back to the present when Makoto answers a question next to him. It’s not like he needs encouragement from other people to get him to swim.

He blinks, startled out of his thoughts by Makoto tapping him on the shoulder with a quiet, “It’s over, Haru-chan.”

He nods, pushing himself out of his seat with a grunt and turning to follow Makoto to the door. The whole event passed in the blink of an eye, and yet he feels like his time has been wasted.

Makoto seems to think otherwise. He goes on about how great the students were, what good questions they’d asked, and how he hopes they’ll be invited back next year. Haru’s so used to hearing him talk that he barely has to pay attention to what he’s saying to understand. He stares down at his feet as he follows Makoto, barely registering the rest of his surroundings until all of a sudden he bumps into something hard and solid.

He glances up, and immediately regrets it. Yamazaki stares down at him, arms crossed, one of his hands gripping the shoulder he’d run into. He has a menacing look on his face, and standing this close he towers over Haru by a good ten centimeters.

“Out of my way, Nanase,” Yamazaki growls, and Haru’s blood runs cold in a split second at those five familiar words.

He feels his heart drop to his stomach and his hands ball into nervous, shaky fists at his sides as the rest of the world seems to disappear, person by person, until they’re the only two left.  _ Out of my way, Nanase. _ The same words that have been stuck on his skin for nineteen years, the ones his friends have marveled over, the ones he never bothered to care about until now. There’s no way that- he  _ can’t _ be…

Yamazaki arches an eyebrow at him impatiently, waiting for Haru to get out of his way, but he can’t. Not now.

“It’s you,” he says, shocked. Because he’s still in denial that it’s- it  _ can’t _ be true, it just isn’t possible that out of everyone in the world, his soulmate is- is his  _ top rival. _

The cross look slips off of Yamazaki’s face, slowly replacing itself with a look of utter shock. His hand flies to his left wrist, his eyes darting down to read the words written there before moving back up to look at Haru with wide eyes.

“You’re my…” he trails off uncertainly, holding up his arm for Haru to see. (Not that he has to look. He already knows what he’ll find there.)

“And you’re… mine,” he says, the words feeling foreign and unfamiliar in his mouth. Yamazaki nods slowly, like he’s not quite sure that he believes it yet.

The two of them stand there staring at each other, neither of them knowing what to say or how to react. There are a thousand thoughts running through Haru’s head, and yet he can’t quite put them into words. Yamazaki looks like he’s in a similar state--he keeps opening and closing his mouth, but nothing comes out.

All of a sudden he remembers that he’s still at the event, standing in the middle of the auditorium staring up at his top rival. High school students swarm around them, and distantly he can hear Makoto’s voice calling for him. “I should go,” he says quickly, his fight or flight instincts kicking in at last.

“No!” Yamazaki exclaims, reaching out to stop him with a hand on his wrist. His  _ left _ wrist. The one with the words that started this whole disaster.

“What?” Haru snaps, the word coming out harsher than he’d meant it. Yamazaki doesn’t let go, doesn’t even flinch at his tone.

“We can’t just go our separate ways now that we know,” he argues, his eyebrows drawing together. “We have to- to  _ talk _ about this.”

As much as Haru wants to disagree, he knows that he can’t. They  _ should _ talk about this, no matter how unpleasant the conversation might be. “Alright,” he relents with a sigh, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Just let me tell Makoto.”

* * *

 

They end up at a little cafe, tucked away in a corner of the building where no one will disturb them. Yamazaki takes a sip of the little drink he’d ordered out of politeness, and Haru fidgets with his fingers below the table, unsure of what to do or what to say. What  _ does _ one say in a situation like this?

“So…” Yamazaki starts awkwardly, clearly just as lost as he is. Haru doesn’t respond, waiting for his rival to make the first move.

“We’re soulmates.”

“Yes,” Haru agrees, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Yamazaki sighs, running a hand through his short, dark hair agitatedly.

“I don’t- I don’t know what to do,” he admits unsteadily. “I never thought I’d end up paired with- with someone like you.”

“So you’ve thought about your soulmate,” Haru says flatly.

“You haven’t?”

“No.”

Yamazaki raises an eyebrow, silently prompting him to go on. Haru takes a second to collect his thoughts before continuing.

“I never… I didn’t care about my soulmate like everyone else does,” he explains. “It was too troublesome. I figured that I’d meet them eventually, but I never…  _ fantasized _ about it.”

“And now?” Sousuke asks, laying his arm on the table. The words “ _ It’s you” _ poke out from under his rolled-up shirt sleeve, catching Haru’s eye.

“Now I don’t know what to think,” he admits unsurely. “I thought it wouldn’t matter to me, but you’re…”

“Not exactly what you were expecting, right?” Yamazaki finishes for him. “I know. You weren’t who I was expecting, either.”

Once again, they sit there in silence. Yamazaki lifts his cup to his lips and sips at his drink idly, then sets it down again.

“Look,” he starts, splaying his hands out on the table. “I know this isn’t exactly what either of us thought would happen. But it did, and now we’ve got to face the facts. We  _ are _ soulmates.”

“I know,” Haru says, staring down at his lap.

“So… Why don’t we try it out?”

Haru looks up at that, confused. “Try it out?” he repeats, tilting his head to the side.

“It probably won’t be easy, but it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?” Yamazaki continues at a rambling pace. “I mean, we don’t have to jump into it right away or anything. We could start slow, get to know each other better… See how things go from there. What do you think?”

Haru hesitates, unsure of what to say. On one hand, he’s never really been interested in--or even thought about--dating anyone, let alone his top rival. But on the other hand, he feels strangely compelled to say  _ yes _ to Yamazaki, to agree to whatever he might have planned. Maybe it’s just the adrenaline from the day finally catching up to him.

“Yamazaki… I wouldn’t know how to do any of that,” he says, avoiding the question entirely. It’s the truth--he’s never had a partner before, and a soulmate is so much more than a partner.  He’d have absolutely no idea what to do.

Yamazaki pauses to think for a second before opening his mouth again. “Well,” he says, a hesitant smile crossing his face. “You could start by calling me Sousuke.”

And despite everything, Haru finds himself starting to nod. “Okay, Sousuke,” he says, testing the name out on his tongue. “Then, call me Haru.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was my fic for the Free! soulmate themed zine "[Across Oceans](https://acrossoceanszine.tumblr.com/)". if you didn't have a chance to before, go check them out now!  
> [My Tumblr](https://djbunn3.tumblr.com)


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